Cascade
by Aiko Isari
Summary: Koh, full of doubts, is run ragged in his work for his home. He takes a seemingly innocent tournament mission and nearly gets pulled into what seems like a conspiracy theory. And here he was hoping this was an easy species quest. A Moon story. Cowritten with Onixflame the Blue. Rating subject to change


_warning for swearing, violence and teenagers being teenagers. At least american interpretations of teenagers._

* * *

 **Chapter One: From My Steel Tower**

"All right, just sign here to deposit..." There was a pause as his intended listener didn't answer. "Koh. _Koh_ , wake up, ya can't fall asleep at my podium, there's a line."

Koh, as he was called, grimaced and rubbed his crimson eyes. "Sorry, Zudomon," he mumbled, squinting at the screen. "Been a long week." By his knee, Sol the Coronamon yawned in agreement, pretending he wasn't leaning on his left leg. Like they hadn't already stood in a queue for nigh on two hours and then stood waiting for paperwork processing.

"Same here." The walrus grunted with exhaustion. "Bosses have been banging on our shoulders. Still, can't let the other side break us too, hey? We gotta stay on the right an' all."

Koh smiled, but his heart wasn't in it. He rubbed Sol's head and thought of a crying girl, her purple hair and swearing laughter. Then he nodded. "Yeah. We have to protect this world, all of them." _Whether we like them or not._ He passed the tablet back. "There ya go. Get anything good?"

"Some armor." Zudomon plugged the device in with clumsy paws. "Your usual bits, a spear. Want another mission for the road?"

Koh hesitated, attempting to flatten his messy orange hair with pale hands. He needed to get to his home, seeing as he didn't know how he was still standing. Tailmon was starting to worry again. "Eh... is it for today?"

Zudomon checked it over. "Reader says tomorrow." He grinned wryly at the look on

Koh sighed. He would need something or other to do tomorrow anyway. "Fine, twist my arm. Old man needs some new experience anyhow. He's fought too many rookies."

The Aquan grinned and let out a tired chuckle. "Sending the data now then. Get some sleep, bronze boy." Koh saluted and left Shine Center, heading to the portal for home.

He sighed at the quest contents. "Another tournament... great." As if he didn't already go through thirty of those in training. Koh went to go home, because if he didn't sleep tonight he would regret it for months to come. Granted he would regret it anyway but still.

Koh reached home with his mind full of purple hair and bloody noses and so much screaming. "Hot chocolate," he decided. "That'll knock me right out." Especially if he made it himself. Anything to stop thinking about Resistor Jungle and the home he had worked in since the age of ten. He was just protecting himself, protecting his own. That was all it was. It didn't hurt. It wasn't wrong.

He couldn't be wrong now.

* * *

Shine Office bustled as busily as ever, even if the movement all seemed either frantic or robotic. The client, an Ebidramon, watched everything more warily because of it. It seemed almost like a bad time to be here, to be honest, but his quest was important. So important he couldn't believe that the person who had taken his quest was two hours late. The tournament would begin at any time; they could not afford this delay. He was screwed if the guy took much longer.

He was about to lament to himself that he probably ought to just pack his bags and flee for his life when he caught sight of orange hair flashing in the crowd. Orange hair was rare on humans, even though this was a. After a moment, staring intently into the crowd, he saw it belonged to the child who had taken his quest, as according to the picture he'd been given. He seemed to be looking for someone, and he was here now. _Finally._

"Ah-hey! Over here, lad!" The lobster waved his giant claw, nearly knocking over at least five people in the process. They barely seemed to notice.

Koh panted for air as he stopped in the middle of the bustle because god damn it, how had Tailmon, of all the fucking mother hens, failed to wake him up? Then again, it was his fault for sleeping so late. God damn it, today was already starting bad. At the sound of the voice calling him, Koh turned. Immediately he sweatdropped.

"Only in the Digital World do you get hailed by an asymmetrical lobster," he muttered, hurrying over. "Hey, sorry, rough morning. You're the client, right?" He said all of this in one breath, a technique he had developed from dealing with his mother when he knew she had no idea what he was talking about.

"Aye, aye, I am." Ebidramon nodded, somewhat frantic. "Look, I know this is gonna sound completely strange and everything, but the tournament is gonna start very soon if it hasn't already, but I want ye to take my place in it, lad. I have had some business come up so I cain't compete t'day."

Koh scratched his head. "Well, uh... sure, no problem, that's why I took the quest." This guy seemed really weird, even for a client. "Stupid question, but I need to know where have I gotta go?" He was late so it'd be good if he actually knew. Also this guy sounded like Giga, accent wise. Seriously weird.

"Over in Aqua Zone. Under the ice caps." Ebidramon said. At Koh's blank look, he raised a chitinus eyebrow before realizing, "Oh, wait. Ye don't know that part of the Digital World by that name, do ye? Uh... What do ye CITY folk call the area..." He clacked his claws, trying to think out loud. "Minoflow Sea? Blackmow Sea? Manbro Sea?"

Koh kept staring for a moment. Then he frowned in realization. "Ooh... Macro Sea. Got it." He sighed. "Awesome." Thank god he had that upgrade installed, there wasn't any need to practice holding his breath or anything. "All right, so I gotta head over there and meet up with someone to sign up, right? Shouldn't be able to miss the guy?" He was just going to go, kick some ass, and get it over with. Then he was going back to bed. Altruism be damned.

"Aye, definitely not." Ebidramon nodded eagerly. Almost too eagerly in fact. "He's a big old bloke, someone no one would mess with, ya see. He's running the tournament as a charity but it's brought a lot of tough customers along. I almost bit off more than I could chew! Thank ye for takin' me spot, lad! Now hurry on, yer late and I doubt they'll wait for ye!"

Koh nodded, eye starting to twitch. He was being thrown into some horrible mission not worth the pay, wasn't he? "Ri-ight, got it. Thanks. See ya." He hurried away towards the portal, really not wanting to talk to the jittery guy any more than he already had. It was best not to think with these sorts of missions, which were the kind he preferred, really. Non-thinking, lazy missions that just required basic strategy. Lost in his thoughts. "Whoa, crap. Sorry..." He looked down to glimpse sea blue hair. "Kenpa?"

The girl's expression was cloudy for a moment. She murmured softly, too soft for his ears. Then she blinked, and smiled at him. Was there... relief, on her face? Cause that was normal. Then again, for CITY it probably was. He hadn't been up here that long. "Hey Koh."

"Uh... hey." Well. This was supremely awkward. His kind of sort of girlfriend (could they be dating when they hadn't seen each other since after the Normal Tournament?) looked like she was about to pass out. "You all right? You look like you need some rest." Much like a lot of people in Sunshine lately come to think of it.

She managed a fleeting smile. "No, it's just exhaustion. I'm fine. You look all right."

"Well, I kicked a Night Claw's teeth in," he said, trying to play off the squirming in his gut. _Felt like right shit for doing it too._

Kenpa laughed, a hollow sound like a cracked bell. "Nice. Keep up the good work."

Koh frowned. Well... that was different. She was the one who got annoyed with him for talking like that, even as a joke. "Yeah... Yeah, I'll try."

She shifted. "Sorry Koh, I have to run. Union Quest. I'll see you."

Then she was gone, leaving Koh behind, utterly bewildered. He stared after her, then sighed. He had a mission to complete, right? And he was late.

"Oi. Lad." A voice spoke up from Koh's Digivice as he began to make his way to the main teleportation hub of CITY. "Are we really headin' tae Aqua Zone?"

Koh glanced down at the Digivice to the serpent dragon on screen. "Yeah... we met back there, didn't we?" Wasn't the best of meetings, the fella having seen him trying to become a better swimmer. And failing at the time. Then again, he had not been a happy child. Sol had chewed him a new earlobe for it.

"Aye, we did. Ye was tryin' yer best flailing otter impression, though I think otters are a bit more sea worthy than you were." The speaker chuckled a little before falling quiet for a moment. "Do ye think we can see me fam while we there? Or is it gonna be all business?"

Koh flushed. "Well, I wasn't exactly allowed out much to practice." He turned that thought over. He was kind of late as it was, so it wouldn't be _that_ big of a deal right?. "That... would be great, honestly. Might be a good deviation maybe. The way that guy was itching over the tournament and all. Might not do any harm to do that." He smiled, a real one for the first time in days. "Yeah, let's do it!"

"All right then! Soon as we land, I'll take ye to them." The speaker sounded positively ecstatic. "Believe it or not, I have a grandson about yer age. It'd be nice to have ye meet, I think. Who knows, maybe he'll be interested in comin' with ye."

Koh smiled a little more and it hurt ever so slightly now. "Sounds fun." Well, if all else failed, he could find ways to make his Digimon happy. "Let's not keep them waiting then." He stepped onto the teleportation pad and keyed in the code. He gave the guards a salute and then was gone.

* * *

Koh opened his eyes to water everywhere and immediately had to suppress the natural reflex of panicking as he drifted towards the bottom of the sea. The Digivice glowed softly, tinting his orange Soul a pale color as he fell. He exhaled, seeing the bubbles with no small amount of trepidation.

Seriously. Dumb water levels.

He lifted the Digivice from where it was set on his belt and grinned a little. "Okay, Giga. Realize." The screen shone a sharp blue and a form began to worm its way from the device.

With a sound much like the song of a killer whale, the serpentine form of a Seadramon appeared from the light. The large sea serpent stretched his entire body, letting out a pleased sigh into the water around them that released a cloud of bubbles. It felt nice to once more have salt water surrounding his scales. Giga coiled his massive form around his tamer protectively, moving so Koh would land on his head from his drifting.

"Ah, it feels good to be back." The serpent murmured. "You okay, lad? Ye ain't gonna try flailin' about like a ninny again, are ye?" There was a teasing lilt to the deep, accented voice.

Koh waited until he managed to land before he made a sound. He snorted, patting the serpent's scales with his hand. "Nah, I think you drilling me in the Tamer Home fixed that issue." He grinned. "I'm all right, just that part of my brain has to remember I can breathe down here. How about you? How's it feel?" Koh imagined it was nostalgic, considering how happy he sounded. This was his old home after all. Koh doubted he'd have such positive associations with his so it wasn't the same idea. It was good that he could see the old fellow so happy though.

"It feels wonderful." Giga stretched some more, rolling his entire body about. "As good as the pools in CITY are, and as nice was yer home is, lad, nothing beats the feeling of the glacial sea on me scales." As much as he enjoyed being Koh's partner, he had to admit some homesickness. It would be nice to check up on family and old friends, too. "Well then, lad. About ready to see me fam? We might be able to learn where we need tae go from them, as well. They prolly had their eyes on whatever tournament that's supposed to be going on."

Koh nodded. He had to admit, he was curious about the old fellow's people. He still had never figured out what had brought Giga to work with him in the first place, and leave those he obviously loved. So he couldn't help being a little curious. Of course, he hadn't asked. "Yeah, they'd know a lot more than us. Let's get going then." He redirected his DigiSoul with care to run heat up his skin. He wouldn't get cold for a long while, but better to be safe than sorry.

"All right then, lad. Hold on." Giga waited for his partner to grab on to his mask and began to swim off in the direction he remembered being old swimming grounds.

It didn't take long before he saw signs of old nesting grounds, small holes burrowed into rock shelves. Seadramon homes weren't much more than that, being a place for them to sleep or lay in wait for prey. He knew his clan liked to leave behind old nests like this and move on to another site, depending on the time of year and changing migrations of the fish they preyed upon. He inspected it a bit before moving on, deducing that his clan had moved on only a few days ago, most likely to move on to the next hunting ground.

However, when he climbed the shelf, he had to pause a moment. He did not remember there being a castle in the ocean depths, especially not one made of ebony stone and covered in foreboding spikes and spires. It had seemed to have been built on the pipe system that connected the surface of Glacier Zone and Aqua Zone proper. That made him narrow his eyes.

"Ach," Giga muttered, pulling Koh from his thoughts. "I hope we find me fam soon. That needs some explainin'."

"Just a little," Koh agreed, tightening his grip on the mask. "I would not want to get thrown into _that_ , that's for sure." He narrowed his eyes. Something about that... it made his skin really crawl.

It was like the time he had found the ingredients to make his first, unwieldy GateDisk.

The very material had felt like it twisted his fingers when he had first picked it up. He hadn't figured someone would be crazy enough to have an entire castle that could do that. "Let's hope whoever is in that castle hasn't gotten disk materials or something either." He put his goggles over his eyes. "Let's hurry, Giga." That pit in his stomach was starting to grow.

"Aye, lad." Giga nodded. He smelled around before catching familiar scents and swimming in their direction, leaving the dark castle behind for the moment.

Eventually he came to a valley filled with coral formations, holes made in the shelves on either side. Swimming in the valley were a bunch of Seadramon-species Digimon, all of them going about their business. A pair of Mega Seadramon who acted as guards and lookouts for those below began to swim up to them, but paused once Giga let off a burst of killer whale song. They responded with something similar, staring at him in wonder as he swam past with his partner.

Koh watched them all with vague interest. Well then, his partner really was one of those respectable old guys. That was so cool. He looked down, absently beginning to rub the mask. Really put into perspective how lucky he was, didn't it?

"Guess you surprised them," he said aloud, smiling a little. "Hopefully they're the kind who like this sort of thing."

"When you fathered half of them and won over the rest by bein' the baddest fella around, I don't see how any of my clan would be unhappy tae see me." Giga laughed, appreciating the attention. "Sad I had to leave them for so long, but they understood, I think. Now let's go see me brother, he'll probably be on the know for everythin'. Includin' that castle."

Koh nodded. "Lead the way, oh mighty leader," he joked. He heard Sol starting to grumble under his breath and laughed. "I know, Sol, I'm in the constant presence of royalty. The royal baker." In the device, Sol twitched.

"I'm going to put your goggles in a tart, you snarky little shit."

"I love you too," Koh replied, snickering. He was so mean to his Coronamon. Really though, the guy deserved it. He could get out such a temper tantrum when he wanted to.

Giga chuckled as well, listening to his human and his first partner banter with each other. It did his old heart good to hear youths be youths. He continued to swim, having caught the most familiar scents to him in the entire undersea valley. They eventually reached a large trench, where the scents ended. Giga shook his head to himself. Of course. This would be the only place big enough to not only hold his family, but his brother in general.

He let out a burst of song and waited. The response he got didn't even take a minute. A multitude songs answered as many Seadramon-species left the crevice and crowded around him, eager to see him once more. A relatively tiny Seadramon, barely longer than Koh was tall, swam around his head, clicking excitedly. Giga was completely at peace despite so many higher forms around him, chuckling softly.

Then a much deeper, louder song answered as a massive, red scaled form left the trench. A huge mouth bared many teeth much larger than Koh ever would be in a happy grin.

"Brother!" The crocodilian form of the Demon Lord, Leviamon, called out happily. "It is good to see your return! I had wondered when you would. Is this your new bonded partner I see, as well?"

"Aye, indeed. I didn't mean tae stay away for so long." Giga nodded. "And aye, indeed, this lad is my new partner. He's growing into a fine young man under my tutelage. Say hello to the fam, boy, they be waitin'." The last part was directed at his partner, still riding on his head.

For his part, Koh just stared in wonder and terror. There was a Demon Lord down here. And no one was blowing up the presses. Holy crap. That aside, there were so many Aquans here, he couldn't count them all. He flushed at all of their gazes, though they were mostly on his partner more than him, thank goddess.

"Uh... hi," he began, awkward shame making his face flame further in the salt water. "I'm Koh. it's nice to meet you, sorry for taking up Giga's time line this and all..." Sol snorted. His partner needed to work on this confidence thing.

Giga shared a chuckle with his brother and several of the older Seadramons around them. The boy's reaction amused them, especially since none of them seemed to mind what he was apologizing for..

"Seems the lad isn't used to seeing this many of us." Leviamon peered down at the boy. "Me least of all. Assuming I'm gonna be eating the world or something, lad? Now why would I turn around and do that when I once helped save it?"

"Ye wouldn't, that's why." Giga said, before turning to address the tiny Seadramon swimming around his head. He'd paused for a moment to peer curiously at Koh. "Oi, little one. Ye have yer words down yet?"

The tiny Seadramon once more swam excitedly in a circle, chirping. "Aye, gran'dad!" The little one said, grinning wide. "I've be learnin' me words real good, like! It's real great tae have ye home 'gain!"

"Good, good." Giga chuckled. He looked around curiously, wondering why he wasn't being ushered off or being controlled more than he was. "Where be ye parents, little one? I expected yer father to say hello, at least."

At that, the collected group became somber, including the little one. Instantly, a pit formed in old Giga's long stomach. "Sorry, uncle," A WaruSeadramon that floated by Leviamon's side spoke up. "Both me cousin and his mate 'ave been gone for several days. We dunnae where they went, they just up and gone one day."

Giga peered at the speaker, curious despite the feeling in his gut. "Long time since I saw you, lad. Here for a visit?"

"Just like you." WaruSeadramon smiled wanly. "Been here for a sabbatical, decided to see the fam. Been like I ain't gone in the first place." He sighed. "I been worked half tae death by me boss. He wanted me hacking nonstop before I decided to see the fam. But then I come home and things be in a right mess, like."

Koh sobered at once. He didn't dpeak immediately, touching his Digivice with his fingers. Hacking wasn't exactly a common skill for Digimon. They could manipulate data of course, but extensive rewrites were tough for most. That aside...

"There's more to it than that, right?" His voice was quiet. "Like, was it around the time that weird castle showed up? Just thinking of it made his skin crawl. "And do you, maybe, know about a tourney being held here today?"

"Ye seen it, then? Well, yer half right. The castle been there for months now." Leviamon stated. He seemed to be on Koh's train of thought, though. "But strange things been happening for it being near. The Digimon that lived in that area, all of them began disappearin', without trace. Even some of our own before yer son and his mate, Giga."

"Then why haven't ye gotten rid of the blasted thing?" Giga asked, sounding incredulous. "If our people be disappearin' 'cause of it, why ain't it rubble?"

"Because correlation ain't causation." Leviamon retorted. "Plus, we tried. All our attacks get hit with green lightning and disappear. Even mine."

"Green lightning?" Giga asked himself. He then murmured to Koh, "Lad, don't your fancy disk gates shoot that off when ye use 'em?"

Koh grimaced. "Yeah. It's a residual effect of the stuff. Even on CITY, it has a faint tint on the portals." He looked up. "I used that stuff to do the gatedisk prototype. It's a funky material. Making a castle out of it as is for a lot of distortions adnd calculations."

Whoever this guy was, he was a genius and likely insane. Great.

"Something we found out to our consternation, aye." Leviamon nodded. "We 'ave no idea how it appeared, it seemed to appear overnight. But as for yer other question... Well..."

"A portion of Aqua Zone was cordoned off by some mysterious blokes, it was." A Mega Seadramon said. "Led by a huge squid with a trident and a nasty temper. He doesn't seem a bad sort, he keeps on raising bit for the downtrodden. But even still, he's not the type ye want angry at ye. He places tournaments for the strongest in the Net Sea to come challenge themselves at."

"Aye, that he does." Leviamon nodded, confirming what the Mega Seadramon said. "This was supposed to be the biggest one yet. There's a special prize going out to the winner, too. Dunnae what that is, but ye can only learn so much from hear say." Leviamon turned fully to Koh, focusing his large eyes down on him. "I suppose ye have some suspicions on this tournament, lad?"

Koh nodded a little wearily. That dread pit had become overwhelming. "I'm supposed to enter in place of someone else. Looks like i have the worst luck today." He flicked his fingers absently. "So a real badass is running tournaments while helping beaten down folks, but his castle is made of some super suspicious material and people have been disappearing..." He barked out a laugh. "Well, we're screwed."

* * *

 _ **A/N:** _ Hi! So this is the last cowrite Onix and I have been working on. It will be significantly slower than the others, mostly because it's pretty short and we have some time. So, yeah! This takes place directly during _If the Moon Shines_ , post Resistor Jungle, so if you're not entirely sure of what's going on, read Moon! At least up through chapter 17. That will give you a good hint at Koh's character in this, who is mostly canon as well as the Sayo he's dealing with. Other than that, that's about all you need to know if you've played the games. So, thanks for reading! Please review if you can! I appreciate all of them!


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